This is a bible study exercise. It is said that Paul is a prophet, writing scripture, and teaching the SAME Gospel as the apostles. Who here can prove it? Tell me about Jesus, using only Paul. Assume nothing. I've never heard of Him. I don't know who His parents were, where he grew up, what makes him special. I don't know what He taught, what He did, why He came, or why people hated Him. If Paul teaches the same Gospel as the apostles, let's see how much of the Gospel appears in Paul's writings. Who WAS this man "Jesus" ?

[b]MattBob_SquarePants wrote:[/b] [quote]This is a bible study exercise. It is said that Paul is a prophet, writing scripture, and teaching the SAME Gospel as the apostles. Who here can prove it? Tell me about Jesus, using only Paul. Assume nothing. I've never heard of Him. I don't know who His parents were, where he grew up, what makes him special. I don't know what He taught, what He did, why He came, or why people hated Him. If Paul teaches the same Gospel as the apostles, let's see how much of the Gospel appears in Paul's writings. Who WAS this man "Jesus" ?[/quote] How could Paul give a testimony of Jesus's life like Matthew, Mark, Luke and John? He wasn't there remember. Concerning the life and ministry of Jesus he had to learn that from his brothers. But infact that wasn't the focus of Paul's ministry alone. He spoke about Jesus throughout his letters. So many references that it would be crazy to put all of them on this site in one post. But look at Paul's focus. He spoke more about "understanding" the sacrifice of Jesus then about His physical life. Why was that? Because he preached the gospel of what he knew about Jesus's life just as we do. But questions began to follow. "Why did this Jesus fellow do this?" "Why should I believe that he was the "true" messiah?" "What did this sacrifice do for us exactly?" And if you notice most of the letters from the other apostles were in the same fashion of writing. Explaination of Jesus's ministry. Not just the story behind the Messiah, but the reasons behind the Messiah. Its true that Paul didn't speak about Jesus's life so much or quote word for word the testimony of gospels. Its seems most of his letters were intended to edify the church that "knew of Christ." I know this is not what your looking for. But this is what the Spirit led me to speak.